


More Expendable Than You

by icewhisper



Series: Holiday Cheer & Tears [1]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, I give you a mountain of angst this holiday season, M/M, Y'all are gonna hate me
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-01
Updated: 2018-12-01
Packaged: 2019-09-05 01:57:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,531
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16801405
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icewhisper/pseuds/icewhisper
Summary: The lock clicked, but Len didn’t open the safe. He stared at it and, then, back towards his partner. Mick knew the dangers better than anyone. Any new safe house, it was Mick looking around for exits and rigging the places for sprinklers if he had to, because Mick fully expected to die by the flame, but insisted he wouldn’t take Len or Lisa with him.





	More Expendable Than You

The fire spread too fast.

He’d planned for a small fire as a distraction, something easy that Mick could set and wouldn’t get drawn into for more than a minute, because they’d done plenty of controlled burns with bigger fires lately. They’d talked it out, planning everything down to the damn second like they always did.

Mick set the fire and joined him on the other side of the building to go through the rest of the job while security guards freaked out around the fire.

“Hurry up,” Mick grumbled, even though they still had six minutes. “Got a feeling.”

“I can’t rush a lock like this,” Len hissed back, fingers working and trying so, _so_ hard to not let his grip slip. If he lost his place in the sequence, he’d have to start over and they didn’t have time for that. He’d only factored for one screw up with the lock and he’d already used it.

“This place has sprinklers, right?”

“Rigged for it,” Len replied, distracted. “But the system’s ancient. Might not work anymore.”

Mick was quiet for a long moment. “Lenny, we gotta get outta here.”

“I’m almost there.”

“Ditch it,” Mick said. “I smell smoke. Smell’s too strong for what I set.”

“Meaning?” He spun the lock. He almost had it. He could fucking _taste_ the diamonds inside.

“Too big. Too close.”

“We planned-”

“It’s _fire_ ,” Mick snapped. “You think I don’t know when a fire spreads? It gets over here and we’re not getting out. This room’s got one exit point.”

The lock clicked, but Len didn’t open the safe. He stared at it and, then, back towards his partner. Mick knew the dangers better than anyone. Any new safe house, it was Mick looking around for exits and rigging the places for sprinklers if he had to, because Mick fully expected to die by the flame, but insisted he wouldn’t take Len or Lisa with him.

Mick’s hand covered his on the safe’s handle. “Go check,” he told him, voice full of restraint. He wanted to be the one to look, Len could tell, but he was trying to put the job first. If he got distracted, they were screwed. “You gotta fence these. We both know Lisa needs the money.”

Len nodded, jaw clenched at the reminder, and let Mick take his spot. “Forty seconds,” he told him. “Then, we need to be on our way out.”

“I can put diamonds in a bag. _Go_.”

Len went, but he knew when he touched the doorknob to the office that something was wrong. He could feel the heat through his glove.

The flames weren’t at the door when he opened it, but they were down the hallway, licking up the walls like some kind of portal into hell. His stomach dropped. _No_. Something that big… The guards were supposed to contain the fire. The alarms should have gone off if it had gotten that bad, but the only thing Len heard was the blood pounding in his ears.

Old sprinklers.

Old alarms.

He should have listened to Mick.

He darted out of the room, moving fast down the hall and towards the fire – towards their only _exit_ – because he had to know if their way was blocked. If it was… Fuck. It was supposed to be an easy job. They shouldn’t have _needed_ a Plan B for their exit.

Throw away the plan.

Throw away the plan.

_Survive_.

Their exit wasn’t blocked yet, but the fire was beginning to curl around the edge of the wall to start causing them problems. Out. They had to get out.

He ran back to Mick, heart pounding in a way that spoke of old panic attacks and, _damn it_ , they did not have time for either of them to lose it right now. He pulled Mick away from the safe roughly and barely noticed the rest of the diamonds spilling across the floor. “Leave it. You were right. This whole place is going up.”

It was the right and wrong thing to say. Mick’s eyes lit up at the idea of a fire so big, but not when Len was with him. Not when they were still inside. Excitement and fear warred with each other and Len grabbed him by the wrist, too tight.

“Can you focus to get out of here?”

“I don’t know,” Mick admitted. “Never been _in_ the fire that big.” He’d watched houses burn, lost in his own head so much that he’d forgotten about the people burning inside of it. Would he do the same with Len?

“Try,” Len said and thought it sounded like he was pleading. “We get clear, you can watch it as long as you want. The fire was getting to our exit point. If we can’t get down the hall, we’re both screwed.”

Both of them. The reminder that Len would die with him made Mick’s eyes harden. He reached into his pocket to pull out a worn bandana and reached over to tie it around Len’s face. They both knew it wouldn’t do much to spare Len from the smoke inhalation, but it was better than nothing. Mick pulled a second one over his own face and they moved, staying close as they edged out and tried to survey their exit route.

Mick’s steps faltered and Len reached for his hand, pulling him along.

The flames had reached around the corner more by the time they got to it. More and more and, fuck, they needed to get out of there. The smoke was making his eyes sting and he could already feel it clogging up his throat.

“Look at it, Lenny…”

“Not _now_.”

Where were the guards? Had they run when the fire spread? Were they somewhere on the other side, burnt corpses left for coroners to check dental records?

How the fuck had this _happened_?

It wasn’t Mick. He knew it wasn’t Mick. Mick would never jeopardize a job like that when he knew Len was trusting him to keep the fire controlled. He’d never set one so big that it put Len at risk of not getting out.

The building. The building.

He couldn’t think. He didn’t _know_. Something in the history of the building? He’d gone over the sprinkler system and the security, but he hadn’t looked at how the place was built. What was in the walls, maybe? Were they doing work? Had the fire hit some kind of accelerant?

He coughed, choking on smoke that was getting thicker as they went.

“Can we stop for a minute? I just gotta-”

“ _No_. Outside. Remember? We get clear, you can look all you want.”

“But-”

“ _Mick_.” He cut off with another hacking cough that seemed to get Mick’s attention again and they kept going. Down one hall. Left. Down another. Left. Right. Down the stairs. They needed to get out. He was starting to feel lightheaded.

Their way was blocked at the bottom of the stairs. Beams collapsed from the ceiling and fire spreading.

“Fire escape,” Mick said suddenly as they retreated back up to the second floor. “I saw it when we were coming in.”

Len shook his head. “It’s rusted out. I looked at it when I cased the joint. We’d fall straight through it.”

“Don’t see a lot of options. We got another route out?”

Len glanced back towards the stairs, eyes burning in the smoke. “No,” he admitted, reluctant. The fire had already cut of any path towards the side or rear entrances. The fire escape was their only option. “This way.”

They rushed through the halls towards the office Len remembered connected to the fire escape, breaths struggling despite the bandanas. Mick kicked the door open rather than burn his hand on a too-hot knob and forced the window open. They leaned out, gasping for fresh air. It was tinged with smoke, but it was still better than what was locked up inside the building.

“Go.”

Len’s head snapped towards Mick. “What?”

“I’m heavier than you,” Mick said. “I go out first, you’re fucked.”

“It’s gonna collapse either way.”

Len thought Mick might have smiled at him under the bandana, but all he could see was the way his cheeks shifted upwards. It made his eyes wrinkle up underneath. “If one of us is gonna burn, it ain’t gonna be you, Len.”

Len opened his mouth to argue, to say that he wasn’t going to leave Mick like this. He couldn’t. This job was his plan. It was his fuck up. If one of them had to pay for it, it should be him. Mick might be ready to die in the fire he loved, but Len wasn’t ready to lose him like that. For all their fights and their off-periods, they always came back to each other. They couldn’t do that if Mick was dead.

Something crashed outside the room, another beam collapsing, and Len saw flames start to curl their way around the doorframe.

Mick put a hand on his cheek and pressed a bandana-covered kiss to Len’s forehead. “Go,” he whispered. “I’ll catch up.”

Len went.

He never forgave himself for it.

The End


End file.
